I'm always really happy to see new things being created rather than just consumed, but you really had me at 'pirate treasure'.
I'm auctioning off the first three bars created here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2887662.0I don't really know that I can get the point across with pictures, but the texture in your hand is incredibly gratifying. I don't know how turning these into paperwallets with the hologram stickers will effect the hand feel, but I'd not be surprised in the slightest if a few people decided just to keep them for general handling. The day that I made these, I ended up keeping them in my hands for at least 8 hours.
I've also switched up my equipment a bit, mainly the vacuum pump I use to get the air bubbles out of the plaster when making the molds, but also additional finishing things. I'd imagine this will result it much smoother bars, but that may or may not be desirable so I'll be sure to adjust as I go. I'm also looking at laser engraving equipment so that I could engrave encrypted keypairs into things for people. My biggest issue with paper wallets is that they aren't flame resistant in the slightest. Silver should be pretty fire resistant, though when I reach that point I'll make sure for certain that there'd be no distortion to an engraved key if heated to ~1300 degrees from a house fire.
In addition, I'm pretty chemically inclined. I've got some acid distillation equipment that I use for making plating materials and various other useful lab materials. I've been playing around with the idea of a two part coin or medallion, the center in gold, the outer portion in silver, and then with the keypair section plated in rhodium. Of course I could mix it up with some exotic materials, but that'd require some additional research. I need a bit more equipment for my planned hydrogen torch for melting platinum group metals as well, but these are all things that are attainable. Of course I've got a handful of sapphires/emeralds and such laying around if something needs to get real blinggy. Maybe a 5 Kilogram Flavaflave Bitcoin medallion thats guaranteed to cause neck and back pain (kidding).
I've always really liked the concept of wearable private keys. Four fingered Charlie is the only one I've seen do it right though, and I'm not 100% certain I could replicate anything like that.
